I'M GONNA HAVE A HEART ATTACK!!

Hey Fam! 

Seriously. These weeks need to slow down or I'm gonna have a heart attack... it's been an interesting week. Amazing things have happened. Heavenly Father has been so good to us, as always. The weather here has chilled out so it's not so stinkin' hot. It was actually a little chilly the other morning! Haha. It was like 64 degrees... pathetic I know. I'm gonna freeze when I get off that plane! 

We had a lot going on this week! We had exchanges, Mission Leadership Council, Facebook coming out, Women's Conference!!! Ahhh!!! It was such a good one. 

We will start with Mission Leadership Council and Face Book. Normally, MLC is the first Thursday of each month. But President thought it necessary to have a special MLC to "council together" (as he always says) about Face Book. It was actually a really cool meeting. We went through a lot of the "safeguards for using technology" booklet thing we have as missionaries. They just talk about how to use our devices while focusing on our purpose and not using your device when you are feeling vulnerable to certain emotions and stuff. President referred to them as our "net" to ensure a safe landing. "When you've been out as long as I have..." you see those safeguards all the time. I never really appreciated them until now. President let us all log in and he told us to just scroll for a second and see how our lives have changed.. My blood pressure shot through the roof. I realized a lot of things.. The world is completely different, everyone's lives are completely different, I'm completely different, and the way I want to use my time is completely different. AH!! So much has changed. It seriously freaks me out. I also realized how easy it would be to slip back into old habits. I think that was the scariest realization... I'm not the same person as before, but slipping back into those habits would kind of undo everything that the Savior has done for me out here. He has made some HUGE improvements and who would I be to undo it all! Ah! No thanks.. anyway, FB is going to be incredible because we will be able to touch people's lives even at home. We can reach so many more people now! I will also be able to keep in touch with more wardies and the people here!! It's awesome!! I'm sure you were a little confused when suddenly things changed on my profile. Haha! That hadn't been touched in over a year and I was more than happy to tweak some things. Now it's very missionary-ish. Haha. I love it!! I can still be in my little bubble! So that's all the fun about FB. 

Exchanges!!! Oh my goodness! It was one of the best exchanges of my mission!!! I got to go "home"!  good ol' Corning. Oh man. Haha. I got to see Brother Pepper. He was a less active who had just gotten clean and sober before we met him. He had a CRAZY divine intervention and then Heavenly Father sent us to him. It was amazing. It was so tender.. the Sisters say he always talked about me and stuff, but I didn't really believe them. It was so cute. He was telling me that he missed me and stuff and he started to cry. He told us about experiences that he had and how grateful he was that Sister Fitz and I knocked on his door. GAHH!! I had no idea we had made that huge of an impact on him... man.. it was amazing. I also got to see the Reid's! Gah!! They're my favorite family in Corning! They are such incredible people. I love them so much.. Sister Reid knew I was coming and insisted on seeing me. The girls didn't know though. So when we knocked on the door and Courtnee saw me, she flipped. Haha. I wasn't expecting that... huge hugs all around!! Ah! I was so happy! They're so amazing. I also got to see another girl I got pretty tight with. Good o'l Lulu! Hahah! We had some good times! I found out her and Courtnee are moving to Provo!!! Woooo!!!! All of my friends will be so close!!! Haha. Saw Sister Knowles! She's kind of a Spunky lady. I love her to pieces! She got a new chihuahua!  And then we got to visit Sister Bingham!! Ah!! She was my favorite! She didn't know I was coming so it was cute to see her excited to see me... man, it was just a day of tender mercies. I knew those people had made a huge impact on me. I count them as my family. It was cool to see that they felt the same, or even more so that way. I didn't realize the kind of impact I made on them.. It was amazing. Then Sister Culley and I got super tight in a like 24 hrs!! Obviously we have known each other for much longer than we remember. Haha. It's totally a thing - best day ever.. 

Women's conference was JUST what I needed. Oh man!! It was so funny, we were sitting in the chapel waiting for it to start, all excited and counting the minutes. Hah! It felt like we were in the theater waiting for some big premiere to start. BUT! This was way better because it's for Heavenly Father!! GAHH!!!! I loved all of the talks. They were so powerful! I love Conference so much!!! It's such s blessing to be able to receive guidance and counsel from our Father in these crazy times.. I have heard a little bit of what is going on in the world and I want to stay under my rock... don't wanna hear it. But it's comforting to know that we are guided by the Lord and the things of the world will have no power of us when we abide in Him and in His love. I find such comfort in that. Man! So much gratitude! 

Something pretty awesome! The spirit taught me something super cool in my studies for District Meeting. I felt prompted to read the "Pray Often" section of the commandments. And in the last 2 paragraphs, it gives us a recipe on how to receive the blessings it lists below! I'll show you what I did in my PMG.. "As we pray with faith, sincerity, and real intent (ingredients), we WILL see God’s influence in our lives. He WILL guide us in our daily lives and help us make good decisions. He WILL bless us with feelings of comfort and peace. He WILL warn us of danger and strengthen us to resist temptation. He WILL forgive our sins. We WILL feel closer to Him. We must learn to recognize His influence in our lives. We must learn to listen to the still, small voice of the Spirit.

We can recognize when the Holy Ghost is teaching us the truth. Our minds WILL be filled with inspiring and uplifting thoughts. We WILL be enlightened, or given new knowledge. Our hearts WILL have feelings of peace, joy, and love. We WILL want to do good and be helpful to others. These feelings are hard to describe but can be recognized as we experience them."

DO YOU SEE ALL THESE BLESSINGS?!?!? Gahhh! They are amazing blessings that our loving Heavenly Father has promised us when we say meaningful, heartfelt, faith filled prayers to Him. He just wants us to be close to Him. He's basically beckoning us so He can bless us. Will we not accept His gift? What greater gift is anyone offering than that of our Father?  So take advantage of it!! It just thought that was amazing. Prayer is such an incredible thing! As I have been working on my prayers and actually have conversations with Him, my relationship with Him has grown so much! I'm so grateful for Him and His love for me, and for each of us.  

I'm sorry if there is weird gap anywhere in here! I left a space to add something else, then I forgot... so I'm sorry. Haha. I love you all though!  have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Hood

PHOTOS FOR YOUR PLEASURE & ENJOYMENT!!

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MY MTC FAMILY!!

One of My Favorite Ladies!!
Sister Hood & Sister Bingham

Meet Bro.Pep ~ He's AWESOME!!
Sister Hood & Bro. Pep

Love them SO MUCH!!
Lulu ~ Sister Culley & Sister Hood

Home Away From HOME!!
Sister Reid & Sister Hood

LOVE THESE GIRLS!!
Courtnee ~ Sister Hood ~ Emily

AMAZING THINGS!!!

Yo!

Welp, here we are again.. it never ceases to blow my mind how fast weeks go.. I really don't like it because on the 14th I hit my 16 month mark - it made me have a small mental breakdown.. it's fine I'm fine.  

Anywho! I hope all of you are doing well! I heard about the fires.. please no one die. I want to see all of you again!! 

Okay! Lets try this again! Hi, my week was weird. It was one of the most "off" weeks of my mission. I felt like some of  our major events like weekly planning were not on normal days. So. That did a number on me, I think. Haha. I dunno it was just weird. But it was still good and felt somewhat productive.. 

Here's an update on life! 

As for Norman, GAH!! Sometimes I really want to take away peoples agency because we know what's good for them! But... then I have to remember that that's the plan of the Devil.. darn. But we had our lesson with him on Tuesday.  it's hard because we both feel that he has clearly gotten an answer that it's all true, but he's still perched up on that fence too scared to commit.. we were kinda bold as we're talking about committing. He said he's just feeling hesitant. The spirit kinda took hold of my tongue and I was like, "Norman, will you ever not be hesitant?" Haha.. he was a little taken back. He was like "wow.. that was very straight forward..." so it really made him think about it. But it was frustrating though because we never got a real solid answer out of him... his tangents just distract him so much. It was so sad tho because he was telling us about his commitment issues from the past. He had this girlfriend and she wanted him to marry her but he wouldn't commit. So she kicked him to the curb and found a different guy and got married. She's happy now and he is kicking himself because he knows he should've married her.. gah! That broke my heart! He's denying himself his own happiness!! How do we help him see that? I don't know!! We had to take him off date.  We had a lesson with him and it was really good. Heavenly Father smacked me in the face with a good one and He also got Norm! Haha. We asked him what he wanted to do with his date and he thought for a bit and didn't know. So we suggested we pray about it right there. It was super cool. His prayer was so sincere. You can tell he knows who he is talking to. The spirit was really strong because he told Him that he would do whatever He wanted him to do. During the prayer, he actually received revelation! He felt that he needed to go to this little tiny church and thank a lady for a gift she gave him and feel it out there. The spirit told me that's what needs to happen. So I trust Him a million percent. Just pray that Norm recognizes his answer and commits. That's the scary part... He's just a dang dry Mormon for heavens sake! I just love Norm and I want him to have ALL of the happiness he deserves and all the blessings Heavenly Father is dying to give him! It's all just dependent upon him.. so please keep him in your prayers. 

Welp, on a more positive note, we met with Katie this week! It has been a little bit because she is going through really hard times... poor thing.. first, her boyfriends son was in the hospital for a long time with some serious issues, then her really good friend was put into a hospital for something terrible. Then a week or so later, her best friend died in a car accident. Man! My heart goes out to her. Last week she didn't feel up to meeting with us. But she was happy to this week. It was cool because we went in planning to talk about something then when we get there the spirit just takes it and goes. It was super cool. She was telling us how she was feeling and the spirit poked me to offer her a Priesthood blessing. We explained it a little and she was totally open. So we called Elder Clarke and Elder Lloyd to drop by and give her a blessing. It was super powerful because while they were on their way over, we showed her the video called Mountains to Climb and it hit the feels! The spirit was so strong! We testified that the Savior knew her and the He suffered in Gethsemane FOR HER at that very moment when she thought it was too much to handle...  Ah! I just love testifying of that because there's nothing that brings more of the spirit than testifying of the Atonement. So the Elders showed up and gave her a beautiful blessing. We talked about it a little after they left and asked her how she felt. She said she just felt so much peace and relief and she knew exactly where it came from! Super cool! It seemed like she felt a ton better. So that was a miracle! I can't even express how deep my gratitude goes for the priesthood and especially for those who are worthy and willing to exercises that authority. There are very few things that have touched my life more than the power of the priesthood. 

We also met with Gabe! He's so cool! Haha. We talked with him a lot about temptations and stuff that he is dealing with. It was very eye opening for me because some of the things he was struggling with are because of the choices others make. In turn it makes it hard for him to resist and avoid temptation. Did that make sense.. it made me more aware of my actions and stuff because I never wanna be a cause for someone to be tempted because of what I'm doing.. ya know? Man! Very enlightening. But he is so solid! He prays ALL the time! He's always looking for ways to grow and learn. He's just a little sponge! There's a lot of things that I can learn from him haha. I'm so proud of him. 


Amazing things!!! So good old finding time! We went out Saturday morning heading to hit up this new move-in a wardie gave us. Well, turns out that she didn't live there. But we talked to Dominic who just moved in like 2 weeks ago! GAHH!!!! It was so amazing! He was SO open to it. We asked him about his background. He talked about really wanting to be closer to God. He feels like he needs that in his life. He also said he had been looking for a church to get involved in! It was super tender. So basically just laid out the Restoration there on the side of the road! Man! It's crazy that the spirit can be so strong even testifying in the most random, typical places! Ya know what I mean? Oh man. It was so cool. He was super excited to read the Book of Mormon and learn more. SO BLESSED!!! I can't even handle it. Heavenly Father is way to good to us! 

So ya know how we're doing the 30 fast thing in our ward? Well.. we are. Haha. Miracles are starting to come from that! So at our ward party on Saturday, Katlyn (she's like 14) came up to us about this crazy experience she had! So this girl that she want even super close with just started talking to her about life. She expressed some mistakes that she has made and really wants to fix it. Katlyn told her all about the Atonement and that the Savior loves her. It was amazing because Kathy could feel the adversary right there as they were talking! But the girl told her that she is super interested in the church and really wants to learn more.. GAHHHH!!!!! Fasting is such a real thing.. oh my goodness! The only problem we might run into is this girls parents are religious and may not be stoked about her looking into the church. BUT! I have complete faith that Heavenly Father has it all worked out! If she's ready, it will all just work out! But yeah! That was super cool!!! 

This week we did a lot of prep for zone conference! Woo woo!! I love zone Conference! I'm always so edified there! I have always come away with something a deepened testimony and deeper commitment to be more diligent and obedient! I love it!! Like I mentioned last week, the topic for this month is obedience. So as Elder Lloyd, Elder Clarke and I talked about our zone and what they need, we came to the confusion that there's things we all need to sacrifice for the mission. Of course, we all have coming out here. But some have picked those things back up. I know I have done that so many times throughout the mission. It's hard to put things aside sometimes. But it was clearly all inspiration because everything came together perfectly. During Missionary Leader Council, we were talking about this and a little thing that Sister Seely and I did way back when I was training came to mind. (Shout out! Love ya "mom") As we were reading the talk called the Fourth Missionary, it talks about putting all of your desires, wishes, hopes and dreams in a box and leaving it home. Well, we decided to do something kind of similar. We got little mason jars and wrote all of those things down. My jar is very full.. haha. I have added to it over my mission because my desires and my dreams have changed. But they are still considered after mission stuff! Anyway, we decided this would be PERFECT for what we wanted to express to our zone. As I was pondering on all of it one day during studies, I have this adorable picture that was sent to me by my favoritest sister ever! (Shout out!) I'll attach it because it's perfect! It's just illustrating the blessings Heavenly Father has for us if we are willing to sacrifice when He asks us to. So we printed out these cute little pictures and went all crafty on it and made our elders these cute jars. Then in our break out session in Zone Conference, we talked about the Savior and His sacrifice for each of us. We posed the question: "Since He literally sacrificed literally everything for you, what are you willing to sacrifice for Him?" Then we had then do their little thing and write things they want to give up. It was super cool. It all went to well! #Blessed! 

I'll tell ya something SUPER powerful that happened at Zone Conference! So they call missionaries up to speak. One sister was called up. She's adorable, I love her. But she talked about how she felt like this is what Heavenly Father inspired her to talk about. And that was praying often. Dude, this talk was written for me... since I left Chico my prayers have been lacking in comparison to how they were there. I was SO close to Him, I could feel it ALL the time. But since I got here, it has all kinda gone down hill. I still pray often and everything. I just haven't been updating Him and telling Him how I'm feeling for reals personally. So as Sister Cully was speaking, the spirit literally spoke words to my mind letting me know Heavenly Father has missed our heart-to-hearts and our one-on-one time. I literally left that. It was sooo powerful. It actually made me cry because I realized I had distanced myself from Him unintentionally... so my dear family, always remember that Heavenly Father looks forward to hearing from you. He longs to be a part of our lives. He wants to hear what we are really feeling and struggling with. But especially our successes!! I have felt Him rejoice with me as something huge happens or He blesses us with miracles, but as we know, He also cries with us.. something I really liked that Sister Cully said was that it's okay to get a little heated in your prayers sometimes. If He can't take it, who can! He wants us to be real with Him. After all, He knows if we are being real or not. And when we aren't, that's when we distance ourselves from Him! So yeah.. that's something I will be working on. It was quite the spirit slap. I really needed it though. I'm so grateful for those! 

I got to see Sister Whitesell!!!! GAH! I love her a lot! Man, I can't believe it's only been 3 weeks since I have seen her last... it literally felt like 4 months.. haha. I'm so proud of her! She told me about some experiences she has had where she had her own little "radar moments", as we call them. While we were together, I would just get these spirit pokes to go down a random street to a random house and somehow that's exactly where we needed to be! Ah!! I thrived off of those! But she was worried when she kicked me out that she wasn't going to be able to be lead by the spirit like that. BUT SHE IS!! GAHH!! Such a proud mama! She's had several of those experiences and found a bunch of new people, not to mention she is throwing down (with the spirit) on Diane and other people that we have been working on for months. Ah! So awesome! 

Here's a funny for ya! During our Planning session with the Zone Leader's for Zone Conference, we decided we would grab some lunch and continue our planning session. We get to In n Out and we are all stoked to eat! Something you should know though is Sister Dee has a rough time with parking. Haha! It's really funny. So she parked and took up ALL of the spots and so I got out, doing my best to be obedient (which clearly backfired..), to back her so she could fix it. Well, obviously In n Out is always busy because it's delicious. So I was standing out  here behind the car (mistake #1), waiting for this truck to pass. Next thing I know, I feel a strong nudge upon my body! The little alarm in my brain went off! I automatically started to squawk and smack the car, hoping before I became engulfed by our silver beast, that she would wonder what the racket was all about and stop the car! It was only after a good few seconds that she realized that she almost maimed her companion.. Yes, I can officially say I got hit by a car on my mission!.. by my companion.. the best part about the whole thing is the Zone Leaders were watching this whole thing play out less than 10 ft away! ALL THEY DID WAS LAUGH... thank you, dear leaders for your concern for Sister Hood's safety.. we might as well always have the classic circus music playing in the background. Luckily though, no missionaries were harmed in the making of this memory. Sister Dee really is a good driver. These things just happen sometimes. Haha! The lesson learned from this experience is stay at least 10 ft from the vehicle at all times.. 

So that's life these days! A thousand apologies for the ridiculous amount of words.... I guess I'm just always long- winded.. thank for all you guys do. I miss all of you a lot! I look forward to the day I get to catch up with y'all! BUT! Until then, I will continue to thrust in my sickle! Can't stop, won't stop! Love y'all! You're in my prayers! 

Love,
Sister Hood

Ps.. sorry mom. Couldn't help the subject. Gotta give ya a heart attack even now! Love ya!

PPS... last funny story.. so today we were hiking up to a waterfall but we were walking along a stream getting up to it. So I was just taking pictures and stuff. Then there was this big rock that I thought I could billy goat onto to get back up to the trail instead of going around! Well, you see, I should really learn that these things are not smart for someone as clumsy as I am...Hahah! So I started climbing up and my shoes started slipping out from under me! So I just started screaming and sliding down the rock on my belly. It was exactly like in Lion King when Mufasa is like "SCAR! Brother! Help me!" Thank goodness they didn't let me fall into the river.. Elder Ellsworth pulled me up! But it  as just hilarious! It was like a PERFECT Lion King moment. The best part was at that right as Elder Ellsworth pulled me up again, my foot hit a ledge and I was able to stand up... those awkward, dramatic moments, though. 

PHOTOS FOR YOUR PLEASURE AND ENJOYMENT!!

MEET MR. RICE PAD ~ HE'S A BEAVER ~
 KEEPS US WARM AND SOOTHES OUR PAIN!!
SISTER DEE & SISTER HOOD

PDAY WITH THE ZONE!!
ELDER'S WITH SISTER DEE & SISTER HOOD

District finding time=ALL OF THE MIRACLES!!

Well hello there! 🤗

It has been an interesting week! It has been kind of a weird one! A lot of people have bailed on us or just fallen off the face of the earth.. haha. Typical missionary work! But we did see some awesome things happen! Aw! My heart was so full this week! 💖 I'm so stoked to tell y'all about it! 😃 

We had an awesome Book of Mormon class! Gabe came! He was baptized in December. He is awesome! We had a super cool conversation about Mosiah 2! We talked about how we are forever indebted to our Savior for His sacrifice. In that chapter, King Benjamin is talking about being indebted forever because when we keep a commandment trying to repay Him He just blesses us, and there we are back to square one! Haha. It's kinda funny to me.. 🙃 I believe He just laughs as we try to repay Him because we are like "DANG IT! How am I going to pay this one back?". I have found myself doing that all the time! Sometimes the blessings are just too great and you don't know how to accept them! I know, especially on my mission, that I have felt that! Man! Way too much joy and gratitude to fit into one little me! Haha. I love Him so much!! 

Tuesday we had District Meeting! It was so cool. So we studied chapter 1 of Preach My Gospel. It talks about our purpose as missionaries and how we can be successful in fulfilling that purpose. So my awesome District Leader, Elder Smyth invited us all to share what OUR purpose was individually when we came out. I don't remember a lot of what I said, which is good because it was lead by the spirit. It's funny when you learn things about your own feelings.. haha! But I remembered talking about how much I loved being a missionary and how I have seen that I was sent to Northern California for a reason. Correction: ALL OF THE REASONS! There's so many things I have been able to do to help people come unto Christ. And in the process, my testimony has grown exponentially and I could never ever turn away from anything in the gospel. I simply know too much. Ah! I can't even experience to you how I feel about missionary work...I couldn't at District Meeting either. It has become who I am. I feel like this is one of my sole purposes in coming to this earth: to be a missionary. It was just such a powerful realization of why I'm here and what all these experiences and hardships and miracles have added up to. I have pondering on that a lot this week. I can feel that the mission has passed thru me, instead of me passing through it. It's really incredible. I'm so grateful for the spirit and how it guides me to understand my own feelings and thoughts. Haha. 

Well! I got to go to Mission Leadership Council again! Aw, I missed it! I got to see so many homies!! Gah! I love them all so much! It was great to be able to be counseled by President and Sister Ward and the AP's. I look up to them so much! This month we are really focusing on obedience! It's kinda funny to see the other missionary's reaction. Haha. We were all like "ohhh boy! He's gonna throw down!" But he only chastised us a little. It's always good to get a smack on the wrist, if you will. It was just very uplifting and made me realize that I'm falling short in a lot of areas! Ah! So stressful! But thank goodness for my Big Brother! Man, do I need Him. Something else that was super cool. President talked about missionaries who are going home. He said that we need to go through the last stretch of our mission like nobody knows.He talked about how at the end of a race, you don't slow up through the finish line. You SPRINT through that line. 

On Friday, we left weekly Planning to contact Shalimar. She is one of the new 'gators we picked up my first week here. We have run into her a couple times, but none of those times were good to actually have a lesson with her. So we wanted to try again. We get there, she doesn't answer. So we tried a couple other people but nothing. So we decided to head back to the church to finish planning. As we tried to start the car, the key wouldn't even turn in the ignition... it was super weird. So we messed with it and nothing.. so the next thing sisters always do in a time of confusion and distress (especially when the situation involves cars) is call the Elders. Hah! We let them know what was happening so they came to rescue s. What would we do without our awesome Zone Leader's! 😁 Well, in the meantime, I saw this as a PRIME opportunity to tract and work the area a little bit since we haven't really done too much this week. So! I jumped on it. I was not going to waste this time.. The first 3 doors we knocked, nothing. Then I felt prompted to knock the second floor of the complex next to Shalimar's. 

We had knocked most of this one before except for those 4 doors! So that's where we went! The first door we knocked on, we met Sarah! She opened the door and said "hi! I'm a member but I'm going to work right now!" Well, haha. We were a little taken back because it's always interesting when you tract into members you didn't know existed, let alone lived there. Haha. we talked for a second. She said she would love to meet with us and get back into it. She has been going through some stuff and could really use the gospel at this point. Her husband is not a member but he's huge but super nice. haha. So that was awesome!!!! We set a time for Wednesday to see her again. She was kind of a little sporadic.. it made me wonder about her mental state, but hey! It is Redding! What can you expect! No, but they were way cool! Then! We hit the last couple doors but nothing. Then we saw that the Elders were there waiting by our car. Elder Clarke got in with the key and started it right up.... typical. Turns out that it has a steering wheel thing that locks or something.. I dunno. I was still amazed at the miracle that just happened! CLEARLY we were supposed to be there right then! It was so cool too because in my morning prayers I had asked Heavenly Father to help us be in the right place at the right time that day.  And BOOM! Miracle of the week.. 😁 This kinda thing is nothing new either! It has happened time and time again. For some reason, we can't leave a street or something. Obviously, it's never the right time to leave! So I have learned to go tract because there is someone Heavenly Father needs us to find. It's amazing. We were very blessed!

Gah!!  District finding time=ALL OF THE MIRACLES!! It was amazing! So we went to see this potential named Kenny. That was awesome. He is super spiritual already and said we could come back. Then! The spirit poked me super hard to go visit this one former. So ended up on her street. As we for out of the car, she was a house I felt prompted to knock on. So we hit it up. The lady wasn't interested. So we started walking down the street to our original destination! As we walked past the next house, as I walked halfway past it, I just like stopped and looked into the yard.. it was super intimidating. All these cigarette butts everywhere and all this garbage everywhere.. BUT, if there's one thing I have learned about following the spirit and tracting, it's those are generally the best places to hit! So, I told Sister Dee to come back because she had walked ahead. She wasn't super thrilled because she wasn't feeling well... so I felt bad that's why I hesitated. But we knocked on it anyway. And we met these 2 teenage guys and they were so cool! We bore powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong on their porch! Ah!! My heart was so full!! I can't even explain it to you! 😁 It seemed like a normal missionary moment, but it was so amazing.Heavenly Father hears prayers and makes it possible to make our goal! I'm so grateful that we were able to be instruments in His hands! Ah! It was great! 

Fun times! Aye aye aye.. so there's this lady.. she came to church a few weeks ago before I was here...  she went nuts. She had a MAJOR melt down and the leaders asked us not to invite her into RS.. she had to be taken in another room to get calmed down and then they talked about her gazillion questions. So! That's that fun. But Sunday, guess who showed up again!  Oh yes! It was her again!  The whole ward saw her and cringed.. luckily though, we had a very pleasant, but random visit with her! All of her questions came during Sunday School. So we just took her to the foyer and had a chat. It went super well! Haha. It was funny because some of the brothers in the ward kept coming out to check on us. I'm grateful she didn't have a complete melt down. 

It was cool though because the spirit brought to my remembrance something from my seminary class like 4 years ago while we were preparing for Book of Mormon class. My seminary teacher made the point that something is valuable because of the price willing to be paid for it, right? Well, how amazing, unfathomable and incomprehensible is it that the One being who never slipped up nor speak ill, who descended from His Father's presence to save each of us, lowly sinners who, on a daily basis willfully rebel against His Father and our Father.. His price was beyond priceless. Because of His unspeakable sacrifice, our value is priceless. He sees in each of us godly qualities. After all, that is how He knows each of us. We spent all of that time with Him before this life. He knows our potential. That's hy He made that sacrifice. So we could meet our full potential through Him. He made it possible for us to make it all the way. What a blessing it is that He can see through our sins. He sees us separate from them. All He sees is our divine nature. That's what He and our Father are trying to magnify in us by giving us commandments and the gospel. That's how we magnify the gods and goddesses within ourselves, through the gospel and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

We went to Weed and McCloud falls! Gah! It was gorgeous!!!! I'll send pictures too! So kinda funny.. I basically fell in the river trying to get to the other side. So that was awesome...I didn't mean to go swimming. I'm generally good at avoiding apostate behavior buuut, not today I guess ...just kidding.. it was only up to my waist. Haha! It was gorgeous though! So much fun! 

I love you guys! Have a great week! Please none of you die from those fires!! 

Love,
Sister Hood

PICTURES FOR YOU!!

UPPER FALLS ~ REDDING CALIFORNIA
SISTER DEE & SISTER HOOD

REDDING CALIFORNIA
SISTER DEE & SISTER HOOD

BLACK BUTTE ~ REDDING CALIFORNIA
ELDER'S ~ SISTER DEE & SISTER HOOD

SWEET SISTA'S!!
SISTER HOOD~ SISTER FROST~ SISTER CROWTHER

SO SMOKEY!!  Redding California

LOOK WHO I FOUND...SISTER SINGLETON!!!
Sister Hood & Sister Singleton

I'M SO GRATEFUL FOR MY SAVIOR!

Welp! Here we are, another week gone!  goodness, where does the time go! 

So I forgot to tell ya more about Sister Dee. She's from Clinton! Same age, same school situation... aaaannd, that's it. Haha. Sorry. I'm terrible.. 

Anyway, as for the work this week it has been pretty good. We have been trying to work hard and find new people! We did have miracles happen! 

So first.. we felt prompted to visit this "random" former lady! She ended up not living there anymore. But that's when we met Karen. Here's what went down with her. ️

It was super cool! We went to visit a former investigator and Karen told us she doesn't live there anymore. So we talked to her and asked if she had heard much about the church. She said most of her best friends growing up were/are LDS. So she knows a little bit. We shared Because of Him. She said she really liked it. She loves those kind of messages. She just got done with Chemo and has some other health problems but she says that whenever she prays she knows He is there, she isn't too solid on who/what "He" is, but she believes there's a God of some kind. She tries to stay spiritual because she has found it to help her a lot throughout her trials. Faith has always been kind of a shaky thing for her and she isn't too sure about it. We told her that's what we do as missionaries, help people strengthen their faith and their relationship with Jesus Christ. She was super into that. Set a time to come back. Gave her our number. Super cool! 

The highlight of our week was this...  drum roll please...........

NORMAN IS ON DATE!!! 

If you didn't fall out of your chair or trip or flop to the floor, you obviously do not understand the monumental progress he has made!! This is HUGE! Let me put this into prospective for you... he has been meeting with missionaries for almost 2 years. He is SO analytical and dissects everything about everything. He asks ALL of the questions. He is slowly having a change of heart and he can see this happening. He admitted that he is a fence sitter. So this is AMAZING!!! It was cool because during studies, I felt impressed to try again to put him on date.. we were a little hesitant because they had recently tried to, but he declined... but the spirit kept bringing it up. It was a very inspired lesson and guided route to inviting him. I dunno how to explain it but it was different. Super cool! 

Here's how our lesson with Norman the non-Mormon. 

It was awesome today! We talked about where he's at with everything. He basically bore his testimony about how he believes that Joseph Smith was sincere and the things he saw were incredible so it makes sense that he might've seemed a little "off his rocker". He said he believes 100% that there is truth in the Book of Mormon. We helped him realize that he is receiving answers to his prayers. We showed him Spirit of Revelation by E. Bednar. He really liked it and it kind of clicked for him when it showed the dawn. He said he is in the foggy one though. He just isn't quite sure where to go. We talked about taking steps into the darkness trusting the God will guide you. We talked about setting a date and how that's showing Heavenly Father that he is willing to do His will and really serious about it all. We told him that we had prayed about it and felt inspired to set a date with him. He accepted Sept 23rd. He was still hesitant because he doesn't have confidence in his testimony yet. So he wants to keep studying and reading to gain that confidence that he needs before baptism. It was cool!! 

So PLEASE keep him in your prayers.. oh man. This is huge and we want to make sure we can keep him there and help him move forward! 

We also had a lesson with Katie! That went well! She is going they really hard times though... keep her in your prayers, Anyway, here's what happened there. ️ 

We had a good lesson about temples and family History, we asked her what she knew about temples, she mentioned that she didn't know a lot. We shared the Mormon beliefs about temples. We asked her why temples are important. She was still a little confused but we explained the temples are we make sacred promises and how it's not secret but sacred. We explained what it meant to be worthy and how in the temples all of the ordinances to return to Heavenly Father are done with the Priesthood Authority . and with that authority families can be together forever and not till death do you part. She thought that concept was pretty interesting. We then got into the conversation about Baptism and coming to church are ways that we can worthy to be able to enter the temple.  We encourage her to continue to keep on praying and reading her scriptures to find out answers to her questions and we also asked her to continually pray about baptism.

She's kind of just there... so we're trying to help her. I think a lot of it has to do with what's going on. Her boy friend's son (he's around 4ish) is in the hospital because he had a stroke or something. Then her best friend was also in the hospital. She also texted us yesterday morning that her friend just passed away in an accident.... she's being put thru the ringer. Poor thing... we invited her to keep praying and reading because that brings TONS of comfort. 

We also had interviews with President Ward! He is so great. I really enjoy my time with him. He has helped me a lot, even just in the past couple interviews we have had. I appreciate his insights and advice. It's always an edifying and uplifting time. ️

So that was that! Highlights of the week. ️ 

As for the spiritual thought, I feel like sharing something that really hit me this week. On Sunday, a member of the stake presidency, Bro. Jensen spoke to us. He talked about how we never earn God's love. He loves us because we are His. That hit me like a brick.. sometimes I feel like just because I'm not perfect I'm not as loved as I could be... well, thankfully, I have come to realize that that is the adversary getting in my head. He knows that if he can corrupt my view on how Heavenly Father feels about me, he can make me fall and trip up. It's so important to always keep in remembrance that we are all sons and daughters of an Almighty King! His love is perfect and unchanging. He cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, but He does not look upon us as sinners that way. He always looks at us with the most perfect, unchanging love imaginable. That will never change. 

Along those lines he said that He blesses us because we are His. Have you ever wondered what did I ever do to deserve this kind of blessing?  I know I have. I feel unworthy a lot of the time because of the incredible miracles I'm so privileged to be a part of on a daily basis... it's incredible. His love is so great that He just desires to shower upon us the blessings of joy, prosperity and light. I am sooo thankful for my Heavenly Father in every aspect of my life... He and my Savior make it possible for me to breathe.. I don't know what would do in this world without Them. I would be utterly and completely lost and hopeless.. 

I feel prompted to write one more thing. This was super powerful as well. So in Moroni 7:46 it takes about charity. But if you replace charity with Christ this is how it reads.  

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not [Christ], ye are nothing, for [Christ] never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto [Christ], which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail--"

That has never rang more true in my entire life than it has this week. Ah! I'm so grateful for my Savior! Cleave unto Him because He never fails, we are nothing with out Him and He is the greatest of all! I love my Savior with every fiber of my being. I know He lives. 

Thanks for everything fam! You guys are amazing! I love ya! Have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Hood

Let Him shine through you!